It ’s so gross to me that any grown man would even * want * to date a teenager .
1.Musical legend Princebeganan allegedly platonic relationship with Mayte Garcia when she was only 16. After her mom slipped him a tape of her belly dancing, he invited her backstage and later back to his hotel room. Both parties denied having a sexual relationship until she was 19, but Prince later claimed he knew she’d be his wife upon meeting her, and Maytesaysthat “He never denied that the occasional impure thought crossed his mind, but he was too wise and decent to take advantage of a 16-year-old girl.”
While they at first corresponded from afar, Princebecameher legal guardian when she was 17. She then moved in with him and danced on his tour. At 19, Mayte says that Prince told her it was time to go on birth control, and they began a sexual relationship. The two wed in 1996, when Mayte was 22, and broke up in 2000.
2.Eighties star Rick Springfield (the singer of “Jessie’s Girl”)datedLinda Blair (the kid fromThe Exorcist) when he was 25 and she was only 15. In fact, he proudly wrote about the fact in his autobiography: “I am her first lover, and she is an enthusiastic learner… We share a love of dogs and sex —separately, not in combination. Most of the time, we don’t leave the apartment. She’s invited to premieres and Hollywood parties, and we go as a couple, blindly and innocently to the media slaughter. We’re actually really shocked by the incensed articles in both teen and regular press about our affair. Either we have zero understanding of what makes the press tick, or it’s a really slow month for news.”
3.“Great Balls of Fire” singer Jerry Lee Lewismarriedhis 13-year-old cousin once removed (so the daughter of his cousin) Myra Gale Brown in 1957, when he was 22. A year later, at 14, Brownhad alreadygiven birth to their first child (who died when Brown was only 17). After 13 years of marriage, the cousinsdivorcedin 1970. Brown, then 26, accused Lewis of “every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable.”
4.ComedianDane Cookbegan datinghis now-fiancée Kelsi Taylor when she was around 17* and he was around 45. They hadmetat a game night at his house and started up a friendship while Taylor was still a minor, which later became a romantic relationship.
5.Michael JacksonmetBrooke Shieldswhen she was 13 and he was 20. He claimed they were dating and later called Shields “one of the loves of my life,” though Shields has denied that their relationship was ever romantic.
6.Brad Pittwas reportedly 27whenhe first began dating 17-year-old Juliette Lewis, though they had met on the set ofToo Young to Die?when Lewis was only 16. The two dated for three years.
Pitt previouslydatedChristina Applegate from 1988–1989, when he was in his mid-20s and she was only 17. He’d also reportedly dated Shalane McCallwhenshe was around 15/16 and he was in his mid-20s.
7.R&B singer Michel’le wasonly17 when she began a relationship with Dr. Dre (who was almost six years older than her). They later got married and had a child, though they eventually split and Michel’le accused Dre ofbeating herso badly that she had to get plastic surgery on her nose to repair the damage.
8.The Knack frontman Doug Fieger wrote “My Sharona” about then-teenager Sharona Alperin. According to Alperin, shewas"about 16 or 17” when she met the singer, who was nine years older than her. Within two months, he’d confessed his love for her, though she states they didn’t get together until a year later because she was dating someone else at the time. Fieger and Alperin then dated for four years.
The song features lyrics such as “I always get it up, for the touch of the younger kind” — when asked about her reaction to the lyrics years later, Alperinsaid, “I don’t know how I ever felt. I was certainly caught up in the middle of it, it wasn’t as scandalous and salacious as it would be interpreted now. Now you can’t really say those things, but then he was basically saying he got hot for younger girls — specifically me.”
9.The Fifth Elementdirector Luc Besson was 29 when hemet12-year-old Maïwenn Le Besco. The two allegedly began a romantic relationship when she was 15, and by 16, the two weremarriedand expecting a child.Léon(starring a young Natalie Portman as a 12-year-old with a romantic interest in an older man) was apparently based on this relationship. The two split a few years later.
10.Multiple women haveallegedthat they slept with David Bowie when they were teenagers and he was an adult,includingLori Mattix, who hassaidshe had sex with Bowie at 15 (and had a threesome with fellow “baby groupie” and 15-year-old Sable Starr that same night). Bowie had first propositioned herwhenshe was 14.
11.Speaking of Starr — she hadpreviouslyslept with Spirit guitarist Randy California when she was only 12.
12.And at 13, shebegana sexual relationship with23-year-oldIggy Pop, which Iggy sang about in the song “Look Away,” saying, “I slept with Sable when she was 13, her parents were too rich to do anything."
13.Marvin Gayemethis second wife Jan when she was only 17 — they immediately started up a relationship, despite the fact that he was 34. There is alsospeculationthat the mother of his first son was not his first wife, Anna Gordy, but actually her 15-year-old niece Denise.
14.Chuck Berry was 33 years old when he was arrested for transporting 14-year-old Janice Escalanti for “immoral purposes” in 1959 — shealleged thathe had raped her 14 times while she traveled with him over two weeks. While his initial trialsufferedfrom racism, causing a retrial (where he was again convicted), Berry himself admitted to transporting the teenager over state lines (though he said he thought she was in her 20s) and of taking photos of Escalanti and sharing hotel rooms with her, butdeniedany sexual interactions happened.
15.Cher hassaidthat she and Warren Beatty dated after he almost hit her with his car when she was only 16 and he was in his mid-20s.
16.Shortly after, still 16, she met Sonny (who was a decade older than her) and moved in with him, though their relationship reportedly took a while to turn romantic. By the time Cher was 18, though, they weremarriedandpregnant.
17.And finally, singer Justin GastondatedMiley Cyrus when she was only 15 and he was 20. Though Justininitially deniedthey were dating, Cyrus confirmed it (though stopped short of confirming they were “in a relationship”). The twobroke upwhen Cyrus was 16, after she left to filmThe Last Song.
